A Matter of Ethics

RATIONALE

The Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS) is spearheading this
national ethics project in an effort to unite member societies to further
one of our most important common goals: To lend support and encouragement
to promising young adults as they strive to meet their full potential as
future leaders in their respective fields.

Such potential is found not on the surface of a person, where the worthy
goals of achievement and knowledge shine brightly for all to see. Instead,
a person's full potential can only be reached by building upon the core
of one's character, by encouraging honesty, trustworthiness, integrity...
ethics.

Because these issues cross all academic lines, you can exercise your creativity
to promote the project across professional boundaries. We hope you'll take
advantage of this unique opportunity to collaborate with your ACHS honor
society peers.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES FOR PARTICIPATING HONOR SOCIETIES

1. Commit to a leadership role in increasing campus and community awareness
of ethical standards.

4. Sponsor a campus wide forum on Ethics. Various disciplines inform attendees
about their respective professional code of ethics (e.g., nursing, psychology,
business).

5. Sponsor a Commitment to Ethics Day/Week on campus. Secure administrative
support for all disciplines to devote all or partial class period to discussing
ethics. Examples: philosophy class holds debate on ethical choices, psychology
classes discuss behavioral aspects of ethical choices, history classes
role play key historical figures who showed moral and ethical courage,
drama classes select film (e.g., Man for All Seasons, Chariots of Fire)
depicting ethical dilemmas, government classes identify examples of ethical
and unethical political figures.

8. Cooperate and interface with Student Government Organization to sponsor
Ethical Awareness Activities. Spearhead the adoption of an honor code
for all student organizations on campus.

9. Locate a reformed violator of an ethical conduct who is willing to
give testimony. Provide a forum for this individual to perform a community
service. Possibly find this individual through a probation program. If
not feasible, invite local law enforcement officials, probation officers,
lawyers, etc to share their perceptions.

10. Sponsor an Ethics Hotline for campus inquiries.

11. Spearhead effort for all campus organizations to develop and/or post
their code of ethics on selected web pages.

12. Develop, distribute, and analyze a questionnaire identifying ethical
issues, concerns, and solutions to faculty. Publish results in school
newspaper.

13. Identify a local business, professional, individual, industry, etc.
that is recognized in the community for outstanding ethical behavior.
Present recognition (i.e. certificate) in an awards ceremony, at an induction
ceremony, or banquet. Establish as an annual event. Provide newspaper
publicity.

14. Purchase inexpensive T-Shirts with catchy phrase touting ethical behaviors.
At a predetermined date, all members wear T-Shirts to classes.

25. Middle school. Develop an Is It Cheating? checklist. Make
liberal use of case studies to illustrate both ethical and unethical behaviors.
Distribute to teachers or volunteer to lead a class discussion.

26. High school. Invite members of high school honor societies to roundtable
discussion on ethical vs. unethical behaviors. Topics could include plagiarism,
ethical vs. unethical use of the internet as a resource, etc.

The Josephson Institute has assembled a comprehensive suite of materials
to help encourage academic integrity in young people, and now you can
purchase them over a secure online connection at www.charactercounts.org.
The centerpiece of a new campaign called "Honor Above All,"
the new anti-cheating resources include:

An insightful manual that provides practical techniques and ready-to-implement
procedures to change the attitudes and behavior of youth

A value kit for the classroom, with student wallet cards, a poster,
PowerPoint presentations and more

A value kit for the school for a campus-wide campaign

Long-lasting vinyl banners that bring powerful messages about honor
to the school community

OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIVERSITY

Each honor society could develop its own emphasis on this topic. For
example,
Sigma Tau Delta - English - plagiarism
Kappa Delta Pi - Education - citizenship
Business honor societies - ethical conduct in business relations

RECOGNITION OF ETHICS PROJECTS OF MEMBER SOCIETIES

Member societies and other university groups will be given recognition on this Web site. A supplement
to the Annual Report will include a description of the program to publicize
this ACHS National Project and the participation of members.

Sigma Pi Sigma Ethics Initiative
In October 2004, the physics honor society Sigma Pi Sigma met to initiate
the celebration of 2005 as the World Year of Physics, as declared by the
major physics societies, the UN and both houses of the US Congress.

This
kick-off event was a conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in
conjunction with several other physics societies. Though many different
presentations were given, one of the main themes for the conference was
Ethics in Physics. Over the course of the conference, talks were given and
workshops and discussions were facilitated covering topics such as Ethics in
Physics and the Military, Ethics in Academia, and Ethics in Publication. The
presenters were careful not to promote personal ethical views, but rather
how to determine one's own ethical views and how to determine if the views
of the person and organization fit well together.

The
talks and discussions were very informative and raised some issues that may
not have been immediately apparent. These in-depth examinations of both
personal and organizational ethical stances will make the choices that the
conference attendees have to make in the future much easier and better
informed.

Some
follow-up activities from the Congress include a set of 10 Ethics
Recommendations that were approved by the voting delegates at the Congress
(see below, or go to http://www.sigmapisigma.org/ethics.htm),
as well as the establishment of committee to implement these recommendations
as feasible, and an initial group of on-line ethics resources to be expanded.

3)
Sigma Pi Sigma/SPS should expand its efforts to involve alumni and industry
in its initiatives to promote career diversity. (47yes, 34 no)

4)
Sigma Pi Sigma/SPS should assign a committee to investigate existing
professional society and publisher statements and guidelines regarding
ethics, with an eye to endorsing these or modifying them for our use. (68
yes, 14 no)

10)
Sigma Pi Sigma/SPS should issue a request to chapters that chapters educate
and inform students about the tenure process that physics faculty undergo.
(57 yes, 22 no)

Lambda Pi EtaSimply Speaking featured an ethics article by the 2004-2005 National
President Jean Marie Lutkenhouse. The National President and the National
Office created an ethics activity guide for chapters to implement on their
campuses. The guide will be presented at the 2005 NCA convention in
November.

Alpha Chi
Alpha Chi's journal the Recorder (Vol. 46, No. 3) has two articles on
ethics. One, detailing a campus conflict that made its way into the national
press, including the Chronicle of Higher Ed, has a neat angle on how honor
society students were instrumental in the resignation of a college president
who had altered a student athlete's grade.

Alpha Chi has launched a two-year project to promote academic integrity
on its member campuses. Alpha Chi posted information and ideas generated at
its most recent national convention at www.harding.edu/alphachi/AcademicIntegrity.html
(see links for speech by Dennis Organ, including a PowerPoint presentation).

Sullivan County Community College, Loch Sheldrake, NYA Civility Steering Group was formed on campus during Fall 2004. The
first project was the development of a Student Code of Civility.
Consideration is being given to creating a contract that new students will
sign in the beginning of their first semester.---Rose Hanofee.

Potomac State College, Keyser, WVCharacter Counts materials (www.charactercounts.org)
are being used in the Academic Success Center.---Molly Alvaro-Smith.

Mortar BoardThe national society has committed chapters to developing collaborative
efforts on campus. Other honor societies are encouraged to participate.

Pi Sigma AlphaChapters are encouraged to participate in campus-wide honor society
activities around the topic of ethics.

Kappa Omicron NuChapters have been encouraged to use the ethics project as a choice in
the "required program" initiative. The 2005 Conclave featured
program planning for chapter activities that feature "A Matter of
Ethics."A
Matter of Ethics ResolutionEthics
Powerpoint

Kappa Omicron NuActivities featuring "A Matter of Ethics" are available for
student or professional use:

Preprofessional/Graduate Student Section of the American Association
of Family & Consumer SciencesA session at the national meeting in June, 2005 will feature planning
for ethics programming on campus in connection with Kappa Omicron Nu and Phi
Upsilon Omicron.